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Will Quotas Work When “There Are No Jobs”, Asks Nitin Gadkari

Stating that reservation will not guarantee employment as jobs are shrinking, Union minister Nitin Gadkari has said there is a “school of thought” which wants policy-makers to consider the poorest of poor in every community.

Gadkari was responding to reporters’ questions on the ongoing agitation by the Marathas for reservation and similar demands by other communities in Maharashtra yesterday.

Let’s us assume the reservation is given. But there are no jobs. Because in banks, the jobs have shrunk because of IT. The government recruitment is frozen. Where are the jobs?

“The problem with the quota is that backwardness is becoming a political interest. Everyone says I am backward. In Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Brahmins are strong. They dominate politics, (and) they say they are backward,” Gadkari added.

“So one school of thought is that a poor is a poor, he has no caste, creed or language. Whatever may be the religion--the Muslim, the Hindu or the Maratha (a caste), in all communities there is one section which has no clothes to wear, no food to eat,” Gadkari elaborated.

“One school of thought also is (that) we must also consider the poorest of the poor section in every community...which is a ‘socio-economic thinking’ and must not be politicised,” the Union Minister said.